Cowdenbeath 1 Accies 1: Tuesday, 20 March 2001

Bell's Scottish League Division 3, Central Park, Cowdenbeath

Tuesday, 20 March 2001

TEAM NEWS

With Jim Sherry injured, Neil Oliver ill with flu and Michael Moore suspended, Ally Dawson made several changes from the team that had been defeated at Peterhead. Mark Nelson returned to the defence and Robert Downs continued up front with the returning David McFarlane. Gary Clark returned to the midfield after his scoring appearance as a substitute at Balmoor.

Accies lined up in a 4-4-2 formation which was popular with most of the support.

FIRST HALF

This was always going to be a crucial match and it was clear that Dawson had his men in the right frame of mind for the game. Accies opened brightly and had the majority of the play for the opening 15 minutes or so. After 18 minutes Accies took the lead with a beautifully taken free kick by Stuart Callaghan. A Cowdenbeath defender had been harshly penalised for a tackle just outside the box and Stuart curled the ball over the wall and past John Martin at his near post.

So it was a real pain when some scandalous defending allowed the Fifers back into the game 8 minutes later. (Incidentally, I'm not going to use their stupid nickname in this report.) The Accies defence were caught flat footed by a pass out to Toby King on the left and he ran on to slip the ball underneath the diving Ian Macfarlane.

For obvious reasons, this goal knocked the wind out of Accies and they played really poorly for the remainder of the half. They didn't really create much in the way of chances and the home team dominated for much of the rest of the half.

SECOND HALF

Accies kept the home team waiting for several minutes before the start of the second half. I don't know if this was because they were being given an extra long lecture by Ally Dawson (or finishing their pies!), but it certainly seemed to do the trick. Accies were much the better team during the second half and if their finishing had been even adequate they would have won the game.

The best chances were:

Robert Downs had a 1-on-1 with John Martin, but the 'keeper saved well and the ball was cleared

David McFarlane got onto a through ball but was unable to control it in a good position

Gary Clark powered in a header which went just over the bar

Paul Gaughan had a good shooting opportunity but sclaffed the ball wide

Stuart Callaghan adopted a "shoot on sight" policy (no bad idea on a wet night against a veteran goalkeeper), but his efforts almost all sailed over the bar.

On the other hand, I can remember Cowdenbeath had a netbound header cleared off the line but created very little else in the way of scoring chances.

IN CONCLUSION...

I think this was a much better performance from Accies and it was a good result in the circumstances. The new formation worked reasonably well but will take time to bed in. However, I was concerned about the performance of Mark Nelson at the back - perhaps he's not match fit?

There were three stupid bookings for Accies players. Dylan Kerr appeared to be booked for shouting at the linesman, while Stuart Callaghan was booked (again) for a bit of mischief with Keith Wright. I suspect that Stuart must be due a suspension soon. Michael Martin was harshly booked for "diving", when he fell over John Martin after being beaten to the ball.

So it was a decent result on a foul night in Fife. Roll on Cliftonhill and the next chapter in the saga.

Accies lineup:

The unused substitutes were Graham Potter, Brain Vaugh, Steven Renicks, Keith Hogg and Ryan Kelly.

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